LAND TAX.

Patea Mail, 28 May 1881, Page 4

LAND TAX.

The Melbourne Age, discussing the question of a land tax, says:—One would imagine that this was the first time in the history of the world that a Irnd-tax had ever been imposed, and that the projectors of the impost were groping completely in the dark, whereas such a system of taxation is as old as civilisation, and is as general as “ the casing air.” Great Britain raises from houses and lands £2,728,922, France £7,000,000, Austria-Hungary £10,000,000, Belgium £B4o,ooo,Greece £340,000, Italy £7,200,000, the Netherlands £1,000,000, Prussia £5,800,000, Russia £14,000,000, and Sweden and Norway £1,170,000, from the impot fonder ; while in many instances the lands and houses taxed are subject to additional imposts levied upon them by local governments corresponding, in some degree, with our shire councils and municipalities. But, in almost every country, both forms of real property contribute to the revenue under the impot fonder ; as Sir James M'Cnlloch and Mr Service each proposed they should do here.

An old fellow now under the control of his fourth wife always alludes to the three departed ones as his “ spare ribs.”